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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26691112">we’re losing all our strength, how can we give more?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyreLily/pseuds/FyreLily'>FyreLily</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>i promise i'll be here until the end [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(but not really), Angst, Character Death, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, How Do I Tag, Oscar Pine (mentioned) - Freeform, Qrow Branwen (mentioned) - Freeform, aftermath of v7, i wanted to make this before v8 proves me wrong, im ready to throw hands with ironwood, this fic is about oscar but not really???</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:27:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,794</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26691112</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyreLily/pseuds/FyreLily</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Team RWBY and Team JNR, along with Maria, Penny, and Pietro are on an airship, trying to escape Ironwood's grasp. They're going to find Qrow and Oscar, then find a way to save Remnant. </p><p>Their wanted posters get updated. Nora sees it first.<br/>---<br/>The title is from Until the End, because I suck at titles. I suck at summaries too. This story is just fluff until it's not. Enjoy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blake Belladonna &amp; Ruby Rose &amp; Weiss Schnee &amp; Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc &amp; Lie Ren &amp; Nora Valkyrie, Oscar Pine &amp; Everyone, Penny Polendina &amp; Ruby Rose, Ruby Rose &amp; Weiss Schnee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>i promise i'll be here until the end [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942306</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>we’re losing all our strength, how can we give more?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi! I didn't think I'd be writing this, but. I did. Basically, I really want to see a moment in volume 8 where everyone thinks that Oscar is dead, and I'm writing this before volume 8 pulls the rug out from under me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The ship is quiet. Everyone feels the tension, the worry and the apprehension. Auras are low, and spirits are lower. Things… aren’t looking good, to say the least. Just as things were beginning to go right, Ironwood turned on them, Salem shows up with her army, and the creatures of Grimm invade Mantle.</p><p>Ruby looks around from her space next to Penny. Blake is leaning against Yang, but neither girl says anything. Weiss holds Penny’s arm, but she is composed, hiding her frustrations and worries beneath a mask of calm. Penny is not nearly as stone-faced. She is conflicted, scared, nervous. It shows.</p><p>Sometimes Ruby wonders why Penny would ever have reason to doubt herself, to wonder if she isn’t…<em> human</em> enough. The girl is so full of personality, bursting with kindness, positivity, and curiosity. She’s more alive then so many people Ruby knows. Ruby wishes that she didn’t have to see such a lost look on her friend’s face.</p><p>Team JNR is no different from the rest of them. They sit against the wall, leaning against each other, as if maybe they could just forget about everything that’s going on. They wallow in guilt (<em>they lost the lamp… the relic of knowledge is with Salem now</em>), and fear (<em>Oscar is gone, where is he, will he be okay?</em>), and Ruby knows that they blame themselves for whatever mess the team is in now (<em>when it’s really no one’s fault but her own</em>).</p><p>Maria is up front, piloting the ship, with Pietro quietly beside her. Ruby is grateful to have Maria’s guidance again, but their group is not complete. Qrow is missing, and so is Oscar. Ruby can’t leave Atlas without them. She just can’t. Qrow is her uncle, and she needs him to be there at her side, making dark jokes and giving her confidence in her abilities to lead. He is family, and although he isn’t perfect, Ruby wouldn’t trade him for anyone in the whole world.</p><p>She needs Oscar, too. He’s like a little brother to all of them, and Ruby needs to be able to watch over him, to make sure that he’s okay. She still hasn’t said sorry, for how she acted, after the train crash and in Argus. She may not have thrown a punch, like Qrow did, or accused him of being a liar, like Jaune did, but she didn’t help either. Ruby still remembers the hurt in the younger boy’s eyes after Oz abandoned them, when everyone looked at him like he was an enemy, when Qrow told him that he would never again be his own person.</p><p>She remembers how scared Oscar looked when Jaune finally let him go, the flashes of terror in the young boy’s eyes for days after that whenever Jaune walked towards him. She remembers not doing anything. Standing by while Jaune slammed him into a wall and when not doing anything.</p><p>She’s going to apologize, Ruby decides. As soon as Oscar gets back.</p><p>But maybe Jaune, Nora, and Ren should talk to him first, she thinks, looking again at her friends. They lost Pyrrha, and it had crushed them. Oscar has become as dear to them as she had been, and Ruby knows that they are worrying like crazy. Although Oscar is small, he is just as strong as Pyrrha had been, and, oddly enough, just as experienced. He is just as sweet as her, too. Truly, a little brother to them all. She’d have to ruffle his fluffy hair when they got him back.</p><p>“Friend Ruby?”</p><p>Ruby is yanked out of her thoughts, and she turns to Penny, sitting beside her.</p><p>“Are you all right?” Penny asks.</p><p>Ruby blinks, and then nods her head. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just… thinking. You?”</p><p>Penny looks slightly taken aback, but she barely hesitates when she responds. “Yes, I am well. I am also… thinking.”</p><p>Ruby wonders what is going on in her friend’s head. Maybe she’s thinking about her friends, too. Or maybe she’s wondering if Winter is okay, or what General Ironwood will do when he finds out that it is Penny who is the winter maiden, not Winter. Maybe she is scared, scared of what will happen when Salem comes, or what will happen when she has to face Ironwood’s wrath, as she surely will have to. It’s times like this when Ruby wishes that she had a mind-reading semblance. That would be so useful for figuring out how her friends are feeling. She is pulled out of her own head yet again, by another one of her friends.</p><p>Ruby cranes her neck to look around Penny, towards Weiss. The huntress is still hiding behind her mask, but Ruby knows better. She’s seen how terrified Weiss can get, and then how efficiently she can hide her fear, so as to seem stronger and braver than she is. Then she believes herself to be. Weiss doubts her own strength, her own skill and capability. Ruby does not.</p><p>“Yeah, Weiss?” she responds.</p><p>Weiss now looks slightly uncomfortable. “I just… do we have a plan? Where are we going?”</p><p>Ruby looks around. Blake has looked up, and though Yang looks slightly wistful about the absence of Blake’s warm head resting on her shoulder, she is also attentive. By the looks of it, Team JNR are listening as well. Everyone is looking to her for guidance now.</p><p>Ruby takes a deep breath. “Well… I’m not exactly sure about a plan.” She sees Nora open her mouth, but hurries on before she can say anything.</p><p>“But I think that we should definitely sit down and make one. When we got on this airship, our only goal was to get away from Ironwood’s forces. But it’s Atlas tech, and we have Penny…” Ruby feels Penny stiffen, and lays a hand on her friend’s arm. “So I think it’s safe to say that they’ll… be in pursuit. We need to get out of Atlas airspace, maybe hunker down in Mantle for a while, helping where we can until it’s safe enough to escape to Vacuo. Salem has the lamp, and we can’t afford to let her get Penny, or the staff. I don’t want to abandon anyone, but we need to get away from Salem.”</p><p>There is silence for a few moments. Blake steps up.</p><p>“I know that we need to get Penny as far away as we can, and I do think that we should head to Vacuo… but…”</p><p>Nora finishes for her. “Ruby… all those people down there. We can’t just forget about them! Especially with all those Grimm down there, and Salem on our doorstep. If we don’t help, we’re basically dooming them.”</p><p>There’s more silence. Ruby internally flinches. She agrees with Nora, but it might not be possible for them to help without putting themselves in danger of being killed or captured - by either Salem or Ironwood.</p><p>“And besides, we don’t have Qrow or Oscar,” Ren says quietly.</p><p>Nora looks at him, hands twitching. Ruby can tell that there is more she wants to say, but she does not speak.</p><p>The silence is dreadful. It is far, far too quiet for the middle of a conversation. Ruby wishes that Yang would make a bad joke, and Nora would laugh hysterically while Ren shook his head at her. Blake would smile, thinking the joke was funny only because of the person who said it. Jaune wouldn’t understand, and Ruby would have to explain it to him while Weiss rolled her eyes.</p><p>A few moments pass; then a voice, from the front of the ship. Maria.</p><p>“You kids, always brooding and worrying. Focus on the present; I’m aware that this is a serious matter, but you’re just children! Take a break, relax for a minute. I’ll land us somewhere safe, and we’ll talk about it then.”</p><p>Pietro nods. “Maria is right; you’re still kids, and kids shouldn’t have to worry about things like... this. Please, just get some rest. We can handle this for now.”</p><p>Jaune starts to protest, but Maria stops him instantly. “No buts. I mean it!”</p><p>A small smile spreads across Ruby’s face. Thank the brothers for Maria. She decides to take Maria’s advice; to take some time to relax and get some rest. She leans her head back against the wall of the airship, and closes her eyes.</p><p>-xxxx-</p><p>Ruby is woken again by the sound of something thumping onto the floor, followed by an “Ow!” and cackling laughter. She blinks a couple times, then sits up and stretches. She looks around for the source of the noise, her eyes landing on Jaune hauling himself off of the ground with a pained expression while Nora laughs maniacally beside him. Penny is giggling as well, and Weiss rolls her eyes so hard that Ruby worries they might fall out of her head. Blake and Yang are chattering away a couple feet away from her, and Ren is listening to Maria tell stories up in the front. Pietro snores softly a few feet away from them.</p><p>The silver-eyed girl sighs happily, relieved that the tension seems to have worn off (<strike>for now</strike>). It’s easier for her to relax when her friends are doing the same thing. She turns her attention to Jaune and Nora, attempting to figure out what made Jaune fall over. It isn’t hard.</p><p>“Nora-<em> ow</em>- why?” Jaune moans.</p><p>The redhead snickers. “You said ‘Even you can’t knock someone over with just your pinky, Nora.’” Her laughing stopped instantly and the expression on her face could strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest warriors. “You shouldn’t have underestimated me.”</p><p>Ruby laughs this time, as does Penny; Weiss even lets out a small chuckle. Jaune looks terrified. Luckily, he is saved by Ren coming over to their group and sitting down next to his teammates. “Nora, what did we say about scaring the living daylights out of Jaune?”</p><p>Nora huffs. “Don’t do it."</p><p>Everyone laughs at that, save for Ren, Jaune, and Nora herself. Yang and Blake had scooted over to the group, and now Yang was telling a story from before she had gotten into Beacon. Everyone settles down to listen, Ruby sitting comfortably against Penny while Nora curls up next to Ren and pulls out her scroll. For a moment, everyone was content. Yang tells her story, Blake listens attentively, and Weiss questions the legality of Yang’s decisions. Ruby presses Yang for details about the weapons of the fighters in the blonde huntress’s tale, because other people’s weapons are just so cool! Jaune and Penny sit with Team RWBY, leaving Ren and Nora to be cute by themselves.</p><p>“Wait, I’m confused. Did you set him on fire or beat him to a pulp?” Jaune asks.</p><p>Yang grins. “Both.”</p><p>Blake snorts at that. “I’m not sure I believe this story. You couldn’t possibly have been strong enough to single-handedly defeat an entire gang before Beacon!”</p><p>“Actually, I think she could have,” Ruby pipes up.</p><p>“Yeah!” Yang exclaims. “Have some faith!”</p><p>“Taking into account that Yang went to a combat academy before she attended Beacon, and depending on the strength and amount of gang members whom Yang fought, there is a high probability that she could indeed defeat an entire gang single-handedly as she claims in her story,” Penny says.</p><p>Ruby scratches her head. “Uh, yeah. What Penny said.”</p><p>Suddenly, there is a strangled noise from behind her, and the sound of something clattering onto the floor. She whips around, faintly aware of the rest of her team doing the same.</p><p>The source of the noise is Nora; her scroll is on the floor, and her hand is clapped over her mouth.</p><p>“What!?” Yang demands.</p><p>Nora shakes her head, not even looking Ren in the eyes when he sends her a confused glance. Tentatively, he reaches over her and picks up the scroll. His eyes flicker across the screen for a second, and then he goes still. His hands tremble ever so slightly as he gently puts down the scroll. Nora meets his gaze with glassy eyes. She looks like she’s about to cry.</p><p>No one is telling stories or making jokes anymore. It’s silent, and Ruby is terrified. What could have possibly made Nora, one of the happiest, most fun people she knows get so upset?</p><p>Yang reaches for the scroll. No one tries to stop her as she picks it up and slowly brings it closer to herself. Her eyes dart over it for only a second, and her face drains of all color. Blake, peeking over her shoulder, lets out a small gasp.</p><p>“Yang? What… what does it say?”</p><p>The question comes from Weiss, her voice soft and uncertain. Ruby can tell that her friend is just as worried as she is.</p><p>Yang swallows. “I… I…” She tries to explain, but her voice dies in her throat and she shakes her head. She hands Weiss the scroll.</p><p>Weiss takes it. Something clicks behind her eyes as she looks at whatever is on the screen, and her hand moves over her mouth. “No…” she whispers.</p><p>Ruby tries to catch Weiss’s eyes, but Weiss avoids her gaze and softly closes her eyes. Ruby turns to Jaune instead. He looks just as lost as her. She can’t take it anymore. Honestly, what is happening?</p><p>“What is it? Weiss? Yang?” Ruby pleads, worry evident in her voice.</p><p>Weiss reaches over and presses the scroll into Ruby’s hands. She is curious, but scared of what she’ll see. She looks anyway.</p><p>On the screen, Ruby’s own face stares back at her. It’s the wanted poster, for her team and Team JNR, along with… Qrow. Ruby blinks when she sees his picture. Unlike the rest of them, he has extra writing under his name. It reads “IN CUSTODY” and that can obviously mean only one thing. <em>Okay, that’s pretty bad</em>, Ruby thinks. <em>But we can just make breaking him out a part of our plan. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?</em> Her eyes catch on something below Qrow’s picture, a bright red that stands out on the screen.</p><p>Her heart stops and her breath catches in her throat. That can’t be right. This is wrong. <em>Why does it say that why is there an X why does it say that why does it say-</em></p><p>
  <em>Deceased.</em>
</p><p>Oscar Pine, the little farm boy from Mistral, is the last person listed on the wanted poster. His round, innocent face is crossed out by a large “X” that captures your eyes the minute you look and doesn’t let go.</p><p>Underneath his name, it says-</p><p>It says-</p><p>Written clearly for all the world to see, it says “Deceased”</p><p>Ruby’s brain isn’t working. She understands, but she doesn’t. She understands why Nora is sniffling and brushing away tears and hugging Ren tightly, but she doesn’t understand how Oscar could possibly be dead.</p><p>Ruby understands why Penny is holding Weiss’s hand, and why Pietro and Maria share a somber expression, Pietro’s own scroll held between them.</p><p>She understands why Blake is squeezing Yang’s prosthetic arm so hard, why Yang herself is shaking her head, over and over.</p><p>She sees Jaune catch sight of the scroll, and she sees him freeze up, and she watches him as he undoubtedly relieves memories that he never wanted to think about again.</p><p>
  <em>A teammate, racing off and saying that they need to do this on their own.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A partner, dashing away and insistent that they cannot take the rest of their group with them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A friend, running in the opposite direction, going to fight a battle that they know they can’t win.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A battle that they will not return from.</em>
</p><p>Ruby watches as Jaune begins to cry, loud, ugly sobs that fill the silence of the airship.</p><p>She forces herself to turn back to Nora’s scroll in her hands, to look away from the giant “X” obscuring Oscar’s face, telling her over and over that she <em>failed</em>. She pulls up the screen that shows the status of her teammates. Oscar isn’t with Jaune or Ren on the face of Nora’s screen, but a few clicks is all that it takes for Ruby to pull him up.</p><p>Her heart sinks.</p><p>She had held the tiniest, smallest hope that maybe, just maybe Oscar’s aura would show on the screen, proving to his friends that he still lived and breathed.</p><p>His aura meter is at zero. As it should be for someone who is dead.</p><p>Someone who is no longer breathing.</p><p>Someone whose heart is no longer beating.</p><p>Someone who will never get the apology he deserves.</p><p>Someone who will never get to see this awful war be finished.</p><p>Someone whose eyes will never open again.</p><p>Someone who is gone.</p><p>Someone who is never coming back.</p><p>Ruby lets herself cry.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I can't wait for volume 8 (it comes out on my birthday!). I had planned this to have a happy ending, but I also wanted to write sad stuff. I hope it's sad, at least. There's a sequel (i've already written it) which will be very short, so go look at that if you want a happy ending. Feel free to tell me about any typos or anything of the sort in the comments. Thank you for reading! <a href="https://twitter.com/sapphicscarlett">You can find me on twitter @ sapphicscarlett</a> or my <a href="https://curiouscat.qa/sapphicscarlett">curiouscat</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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